Topic B: Cooperating to Prevent Low-Technology Terror Attacks

Topic B: Cooperating to Prevent Low-Technology Terror Attacks

Introduction to the Topic

Terrorism is defined as “The unlawful use of violence or threat of violence to instill fear and coercegovernments or societies. Terrorism is often motivated by religious, political, or other ideologicalbeliefs and committed in the pursuit of goals that are usually political”. Therefore, whatdistinguishes it from ‘regular’ criminal acts, is its purpose. Terrorism is when a crime is committedfor a political purpose. This is why the US Anarchist bombings were seen as terrorist acts, becauseof their political goal, whereas the Somalian pirate attacks are simply seen as criminal acts becausetheir only motivations are monetary.

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend towards the use of low-technology attacks byterrorists. This is a real issue, because of the fact that preventing low-technology terrorist attacksis much more difficult than preventing attempts that utilize more technological means such asbombs. Intelligence and law enforcement can regulate and track purchases of the materials neededto make a bomb, whereas it is impossible to control who buys a car and what they might use it for.

Therefore, as attacks become less sophisticated, they are also becoming harder to prevent. Afterall, an attacker does not need any training or materials in order to use a vehicle as a terroristweapon.

Attacks of this nature have escalated since the 2016 attack in France when a man drove a truckthrough a large crowd and caused mass casualties. ISIS has since promoted the idea of vehicleattacks, stating that “though being an essential part of modern life, very few actually comprehendthe deadly and destructive capability of the motor vehicle and its capacity of reaping large numbersof casualties if used in a premeditated manner”.

Counter-terrorism is defined as “actions are taken directly against terrorist networks and indirectlyto influence and render global and regional environments inhospitable to terrorist networks”.

Therefore, it does not just involve military actions taken against terrorism, which on their ownwould not work to prevent any possible attacks; counter-terrorism also must address the civilianside of the problem. This is about trying to ensure that the region is inhospitable to terrorists. Inorder to prevent low-technology terrorist attacks, countering the ideologies behind terrorism isvital. After all, whilst installing barriers and bollards in busy public areas to prevent vehiclesdriving through crowds may work, but it would be physically impossible to close off whole citiesin this way. Therefore, the best response that officials have mustered is to tackle the root cause ofthese terrorist attacks. They have turned to schools, doctors, faith centers and charities to divertpeople from extremism.

Timeline of Events

July 2016 – attack in Nice, France.

On the 14th July 2016, a cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating Bastilleday, resulting in 86 deaths and 458 injuries. The attacker was then shot by police.

December 2016 - Berlin attack.

On 19 December 2016, a truck was driven into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12and injuring 56.

March 2017 – the Westminster attack in London.

A man drove onto the pavement on Westminster Bridge, injuring over 50 people and killing4. He then crashed outside Parliament and attempted to get in with a knife, killing a policeofficer, before being shot and killed by armed police.

April 2017 – Stockholm attack.

On 7 April 2017, a hijacked truck was deliberately driven into crowds along a street, beforecrashing through a department store.

June 2017 – the London Bridge attack in London.

This was quite similar to the previous attack in London; several men used a van as a weaponto run over civilians, before exiting in Borough market and attacking people with knives.8 people were killed, and 48 injured.

MOORE’s LAW(THE CATALYST)

All technological developments today are bound by the common factor of Integrated circuits which comprise oftransistors. The catalyst for the rapid growth is Moor’s Law which simply stated that the computing power (asdenoted by the number of transistors on a single chip) will double every eighteen months along with a sizablereduction in the cost with respect to the computing power. This Law is a benchmark adopted by the industry to fuelits growth.

To understand the impact of the law, a simple example can be considered, that the first human satellite in spacehad less computing power than a simple smart bomb being utilized by the more technological armies of the world.

Therefore this rapid growth has also led to the development of faster, deadlier weapons of war at comparativelyless cost with respect to the technological requirements for these systems as compared to their predecessors.

Beyond its apparent advantage to military hardware, other technologies such as nuclear systems, the cyber realmetc.; In short every aspect of technology has been impacted by the implications of this law.

MAJOR CONCERNS

The rise of the internet, the discovery of the potential of the atom, the changing face of warfare due to theevolution of tools of war and theaters of combat. And the very duality of technological progress with equalpotential for great destruction and great development come a great many concerns with respect to global securityin light of all these innovations. The need to address these issues has never been greater for the conventionalprotocols are no longer adequate to deal with these challenges, of cyber warfare, Nuclear Technology , Emergingtechnologies of warfare. Another consideration that needs to be maintained while addressing these issues is thatinnovation is not hampered but tampered.

Cyber Warfare

The invention of the internet has revolutionized communication. The influx of internet into all aspects of life aroundthe globe is greatly due to the cheaper, more powerful and easier access to this global network. With timecyberspace has become an integral part of the well-functioning of states, especially of those developed.

But what is cyberspace? The word was first used by the science fiction author William Gibson to describe a globalcomputer navigation network that linked all people, machines and sources of information in the world.

Cyberspace comprises a range of networks that are accessible to the internet via rights of permissions dependingon the network. Although it has innumerable benefits, but the seemingly infinite nature poses unknown risks interms of availability and quality of information, rate of transference and system controls.

Therefore, an approach to cyber warfare requires a reassessment of the rules of engagement in case of an attack orthe usage in conventional conflict with other systems.

Cyber Attacks

Attacks can originate from government organizations, civilians, descendant political or terrorist organizations, in fact anyone with enough computing power and knowhow can generate and attack. Some common forms of cyber-attackdepending on the nature of the intrusion are stated below.

- DDoS attacks: Most cases of web pages being shut down are called DDoS attacks. This is short for"Distributed Denial of Service," and basically means that thousands ofrequests are sent to a server in order to bring it down.

- Espionage: obtaining classified information from individuals, governments or institutions using illegalexploitation methods on internet, networks, software and or computers

- Sabotage: Military activities that constantly use computers and satellites for coordination are the main goalof equipment disruption. Orders and communications can be intercepted, replaced or reprogrammed.

Controversies and focus points

The main issues that are to be discussed regarding cyber warfare threats are:

Terms such as cyberspace, cyber security and cyber war are common, but not universally defined and accepted.

The theater of war is not well defined and so the moral, ethical, security protocols are hazy at best; and some policymakers believe that the network is not a real threat. Therefore, there are no public policies; although it is interestingto note that70% of the world leaders believe that international policies and regulations are far behind technologyadvances.

The high degree of anonymity of digital interactions makes identifying an attacker a time-consuming, if notimpossible, task. This leads to impunity and entails that warfare can be fought without direct political connection orcontribution.

There is no need for armed conflict or physical contact meaning that boundariesmilitary – civilian and physical –virtual disappear.It can be a powerful tool which allows insignificant actors in terms of conventional power to have for reachingimpact on global events.Therefore to handle cyber warfare the laws and rules of engagement need to be defined without compromising the cyber mobility of the global community

EMERGING TECHNOLGIES IN MODERN CONFLICT

War and conflict have been the defining traits of humanity’s history, and like all other activities affected bytechnological transitions this is no different. As stated multiple times throughout the guide the rise of thetransistors resulting in the subsequent creation of personal computers and other information technology has laidthe foundation of a new form of warfare deeply steeped in the information technologies. Although the creation,accumulation and manipulation of information have always played a pivotal role in conflict and security, networkedcomputers have allowed for greater accessibility, speed, affordability, simplicity and precision. This has led to rapiddevelopment and production of advanced weapon systems of today, and the future which are changing the wayconflicts are carried out. It is imperative to understand that conventional rules of engagement are no longer fullyapplicable to these technologies. This section briefly explores such weapon’s systems redefining modern conflicts.

Terrorist groups using social media

ISIS

Isis has proven to be fluent in YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, internet memes andother social media.Its posting activity has ramped up reaching an all-time high of almost 40,000 tweets in oneday as they marched into the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Twitter has tried to counter ISIS,suspending more than 1,000 accounts it suspected of terrorist links. Amateur videos andimages are being uploaded daily by its foot soldiers, which are then globally shared both byordinary users and mainstream news organizations.

Social-media monitor Recorded Future found that ISIS had succeeded in creating hype witha total of 700,000 accounts discussing the terrorist group.

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization founded in 1988 by Osamabin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers who fought against the Sovietinvasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.It operates as a network made up of Islamic extremist,Salafist jihadists. Al-Qaeda has an Internet presence spanning nearly two decades.

The Czech Military Intelligence Service commented that Al-Qaeda are spreading its ideologyamong the Muslim community in Europe, mainly through the means of social media.The difference between Al-Qaeda and ISIS is, that Al-Qaeda terrorists use the internet todistribute material anonymously or 'meet in dark spaces'. ISIS has taken a direct approachespecially when uploading videos of them attacking towns and firing weapons.

Taliban

Taliban is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently wagingwar (an insurgency, or jihad) within that country.

Before the Taliban were toppled from power in the US-led invasion of 2001, the Islamistgroup banned television, cinemas and photography as un-Islamic. Only an abrupt but brutaldefeat by Western militaries in 2001 caused the Taliban to embrace technology. Much likeAl-Qaeda in Iraq (which would later fracture to become the Islamic State or ISIS), Talibanmilitants filmed their attacks and posted them to the Internet, hoping to convince local audiencesof the group’s impending return to power and foreign ones of the war in Afghanistan’sultimate futility.Now, the Taliban are active on a variety of media platforms. They recently began releasingaudio files with songs and news updates, and launched a smartphone app for their Voice ofJihad website, available in multiple languages. Their videos, once grainy, are sleek andwidely shared. From their hide-outs on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border, Talibanhave started accounts on open platforms that often stayed below the radar of the companiesthat operate them. In late 2015, the group began using Telegram Messenger for officialcommunications, following a similar move early in the year by Islamic State, whose technical experts had determined the messaging app was among the most secure encrypted platforms.The complexity of the Taliban’s presence on social media is startling in its scope.When social networking services ban terrorist-linked accounts, channels, and pages, theTaliban will tell its supporters through available means of communication where to find thelatest outlets of its news agency, rebuilt through fresh numbers and usernames.

ISIS has used social media to recruit thousands of non-Arab foreigners and strengthen thelegitimacy of its global caliphate in the Muslim world. The Taliban, meanwhile, only has ambitionsto rule Afghanistan, a country with 31% literacy where the computers andsmartphones needed to access social media are scarce. Public relations have been a separatedisaster, with the Taliban’s popularity declining from 56% in 2009 to 29% in 2011. Itstiny audience therefore has little reach and less hope of growing.However, the Taliban is using social media not for the instant gains on which ISIS thrivesbut as an example of soft power to achieve long-term goals. The Taliban’s limited but targetedbroadcasts to audiences in the Muslim and Western worlds can help it achieve itslong-held goal of expelling foreign soldiers from Afghanistan as military adventures in thecountry lose more popularity.

However, social media could prove a mixed blessing for the Taliban in the short term. Onthe one hand, smartphones give American combat drones flying over Afghanistan and Pakistanan excellent opportunity to monitor and target Taliban members, perhaps including themilitants’ leader killed earlier this year. On the other, application software with end-to-endencryption such as Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp has made the CIA’s job of surveillingthe militants much more difficult.

For now, the Taliban forms part of a wider trend in which local revolutionaries and terrorists,maybe inspired by ISIS, use social media to brand themselves and plot their agendas.Throughout the failed coup d’état in Turkey, the military putschists schemed overWhatsApp. In a similar fashion, Shia militias in Iraq are pushing their narratives over broadcastingsatellite services.

Boko Haram

Boko Haram is an Islamic extremist group based in northeastern Nigeria, also active inChad, Niger and northern Cameroon.On 18 January 2015, an Arabic-language Twitter account purporting to be the official outletfor a new Boko Haram media group called Al-Urwah al-Wuthqa was launched and immediatelypromoted by key pro-IS media operatives.Since then, the group has used the feed to publish a stream of propaganda, including severalnew videos, although there has been some disruption to its media activities followingthe suspension of the original account by Twitter.The increased sophistication and organization of the propaganda that followed the launch ofthe Twitter account bore signs of the influence of ISIS, which has honed its social media exploitation over the past year. It appears that the group may have been assisted by ISISmedia operatives, or influenced by ISIS in an indirect way. But despite the marked improvementsin quality, Boko Haram's overall media package remains some way off the sophisticationof IS' output.Since the launch of the Boko Haram Twitter account, there have been inconsistencies in thegroup's media operation, suggesting that a lack of professionalism may persist amongthose responsible for publishing the group's propaganda.

Attempts to thwart the use of social media by terror groups

So far, most attempts to neutralize the Islamic State’s media juggernaut have proven ineffective.That is because the architects of the countermeasures fail to grasp what makes theorganizations content and distribution method so distinctive. ISIS got that way by diligentlyanalyzing how the West manufactures and consumes information and doing the same. Tochip away at what they’ve created, the international community must learn from them.

One approach is to make social media companies responsible for what is posted on theirsites, for example some US government officials have urged social media companies tostop hosting content from terror groups and social media providers have repeatedly shutdown accounts affiliated with extremists. But as described in the next chapter, there issome issues with that even though Facebook and others have policies concerning terroristcontent.

Moreover, there is many people who say that if the media spreads these news they supportand legitimize terrorist groups. However, there is no proof how important social media actuallyis in drawing members to them since most people would never do something violent(join a terrorist group when seeing their content). Furthermore, locating terrorists via theirsocial media accounts has helped law enforcement in the past tremendously.Some believe the answer is that no new laws are needed, or justifiable, any more than itwould be tolerable to enact laws restricting speech over the telephone, in a newspaper or abook, on a street corner, or in a church, mosque or synagogue.Even if YouTube pulled down every video, radical groups could post the same videos ontheir own Web sites. Trying to restrain the Internet is a game of “whack-a-mole” that cannotbe won. Having the videos on YouTube may even be a good thing, because it makes it easierfor law enforcement officials, the media and the public to monitor the groups and theirmessages.